Asia top stories - weekly summary

SINGAPORE (ICIS news)--Here are some of the top stories from ICIS news Asia and the Middle east for the week ended 09 July 2010.
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Focus - Buyers return to Asia nylon market to replenish stocks
Buying activities in the Asian nylon chip market returned mid week after a two-month absence as the downstream polyamide market is running low on inventory of raw material, industry sources said on Friday.

Taiwan's Formosa partly awards term naphtha at $6/t discount
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) has awarded part of its term naphtha tender at a discount of $6/tonne (€4.7/tonne) to Japan quotes, traders said on Friday.

Shutdown at Taiwan’s Formosa No 1 cracker to last a month
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) will shut its 700,000 tonne/year No 1 naphtha cracker for a month, following a blast on Wednesday, a company source said on Thursday.

Asia olefins traders suspend spot talks; all eyes on Formosa
Some Asian ethylene and propylene traders have suspended spot discussions following an outage at Formosa Petrochemical Corp’s (FPC) smallest naphtha cracker in Taiwan, as they await greater clarity regarding the situation, market players said on Thursday.

Focus - Asia ACN may extend falls as China stifles imports
Prices of acrylonitrile (ACN) in Asia may fall further as China has enough domestic supply to forego imports up to next month, market sources said on Thursday.

Formosa mulls delay in No 2 cracker turnaround after Mailiao blast
Taiwan's Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) is considering to push back the scheduled August turnaround at its 1.03m tonne/year No 2 cracker in Mailiao, after an explosion on Wednesday shut down its 700,000 tonne/year  No 1 cracker at the site, a company official said.

Focus - Asia petchems market braces for impact from FPC cracker outage
An outage at the 700,000 tonne/year naphtha cracker of Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC) in Mailiao, Taiwan on Wednesday may have some strong repercussions on the Asian downstream petrochemicals markets, industry sources said.

Focus - Weaker regional demand to slow Malaysia Q3 palm oil exports
Malaysia's palm oil exports may slow down in the third quarter as demand may slip from key regional buyers amid fears of weakening economic activities, market sources said on Wednesday.

Focus - Asia naphtha could fall below $600/tonne on supply glut
Asian naphtha prices could dive below the $600/tonne mark, the lowest in about nine months, as the market faces a supply deluge from the Middle East and India amid slow demand, traders said on Tuesday.

Taiwan’s Formosa seeks up to 300,000 tonnes of term naphtha
Taiwan’s Formosa Petrochemical Corp (FPC)  has issued a tender to buy up to 300,000 tonnes of naphtha, for October 2010 to September 2011 supply, or October 2010 to March 2011 supply, a trader familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.

Focus - China base oils to stay weak as domestic car industry slows
China’s base oils prices may continue to soften this month amid an inventory overhang as demand has been slowing from its domestic automotive sector, industry sources said on Tuesday.

Focus - Asia SM may fall below $1,000/t in near-term on ample supply
Asia styrene monomer (SM) prices into the key Chinese market may slip below the $1,000/tonne (€800/tonne) levels in the near-term on strong supply amid weak market sentiment, traders said on Monday

Focus - Healthy crude product cracks to keep Asian aroms in oversupply
The Asian aromatics market may continue to wade through a supply glut next year, as healthy cracks in crude products such as middle and heavy distillates will keep refineries running at high rates, market sources said on Monday.

India's SAPL to proceed with $170m Egypt PET project
India’s South Asia Petrochem (SAPL) will proceed with a plan to build a new polyethylene terephthalate (PET) resin plant in Egypt for $170m (€134m), a company source said on Friday.

Saudi Aramco offers 55,000t spot naphtha for early August
Saudi Aramco is offering a spot naphtha cargo of 50,000-55,000 tonnes in a tender for loading from Ras Tanura in early August, traders said on Thursday.

Kuwait Petroleum offers 24,000t light naphtha for early August
Kuwait Petroleum Corp (KPC) has tendered to sell 24,000 tonnes of light naphtha for loading on 1–2 August, traders said on Tuesday.

Saudi Aramco sells 55,000t naphtha for 14-15 July
Saudi Aramco has sold by tender 55,000 tonnes of naphtha for loading from Yanbu and Jeddah in mid July, market sources said on Tuesday.

Saudi's SABIC rolls over $850/tonne as Aug MEG ACP nomination
Saudi Basic Industries Corp (SABIC) has nominated its Asia Contract Price (ACP) for August monoethylene glycol (MEG) at $850/tonne (€680/tonne), unchanged from July's levels, a company official said on Tuesday.